Why struggle can be your best friend

We’ve all been through it.

That moment when we’re about to get introduced to a new position at work, a new exercise you’ve never tried, a new relationship, that meaningless voice that appears in your head, the devil next to your shoulder who whispers, “you can’t, you’re not good enough, you don’t have the tools, they’re someone better”.

Let’s face it, even the best of us seem to be bombarded by uncomfortable moments of doubt that seems to prevent us from pursuing our dreams and goals. With time, the strongest can learn to shrug off these voices and disregard failure, while others seem to crumble under the anxiety caused by their own fears and preoccupations.

Fear is necessary

Fear is a difficult thing to manage, fear can cause immense doubt. However, fear is necessary for survival.

If it wasn’t for fear, fire wouldn’t have been created. If it wasn’t for fear, European settlers wouldn’t have sailed westward to provide for their families. If it wasn’t for fear, the forces of our western countries wouldn’t have come together in order to fight the evil threat of fascist regimes during WWII.

We need fear. We need to struggle. We need to lose.

Life is never perfect. Adam and Eve, wasn’t just this make pretend story, it’s real life.

There will and always be a snake in the garden. In our current world of climate change and political instability, chaos is right around the corner.

We need to struggle and we need to lose because when our backs are against the wall, when we have nowhere else to go, the only logical choice is TO PUSH FORWARD.

Struggle and loosing are needed to LEARN, fear is important so one may better prepare and not repeat the same mistakes of the past.

If we never struggle and loose, we will never know who we really are deep down inside. If we never fail, how in hell will one know how to win.

Struggle is necessary for success. All the greats have struggled, from Oprah Winfrey to Jesus, from Richard Pryor to Arnold Schwarzenegger. Tell me of a man and his 100 victories, I’ll tell you of his 1000 failures.

BE YOUR OWN SUPERHERO

A wise man once said, “live your life as if you were the hero of your own tale”.

Seems silly, right?

But think about it, every day we seem to line up to watch another Avengers movie. As human beings, we are obsessed with this narrative of the superhero having to go through hardships and struggle in order to learn and save the world from the coming chaos and doom.

Fiction or not, we idolise these heroes, not because of their glory or their new-found riches, but because when times get rough, they taught us to never give up. These stories remind us that everyone goes through ups and downs, and no matter what, as long as you have a purpose and a goal, you can make it as long as you PUSH THROUGH.

Embrace struggle, difficulties are transformative. Like steel, us humans can we only bend with fire and pressure.

Be the hero of your own story, be someone your parents and children will be proud of. Don’t run away from struggle, it may be the best thing that ever happened to you.